John Fitzgerald Kennedy: the 35th President of the United States
J.F.K. was
born in Brookline, Massachusetts on May 29, 1917, second oldest of nine
children. Although his great grandparents did not come to America with much
money, already his grandfathers were political leaders in Boston. His father
even was an adviser to President Roosevelt and Ambassador.
When J.F.K
was young he travelled much around. After he graduated at Harvard College in
1940 he wrote a best-selling book about decisions which led to World War II.
Then he joined the Navy to fight the Japanese. After World War II he decided to
get politician in stead of teacher or writer. In 1946 he was elected to the
House of Representatives and six years later to the U.S. Senate. He married
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in 1953. She gave birth to his first child, Caroline, in
1957. The same year he was awarded the Pullitzer Prize - a book about senators
who fought for things in which they believed.
The
Democrats chose Kennedy as their presidential candidate in 1960. Kennedy asked
Lyndon B. Johnson to run with him for Vice President. On November 8, he
defeated Vice President Richard M. Nixon in a very close race. One advantage
surely had been that J.F.K. offered help to the jailed Martin Luther King what
brought him many votes of African Americans. Kennedy was the first Catholic and
youngest president in the U.S..
One of the
first things he did was asking the Congress to spend more money on space
exploration, with the goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the
decade. He also had to make more difficult decisions - it was the time of "Cold
War". In June 1961 he met Nikita Khrushchev to discuss about Berlin because
many East Germans have moved to the Western part of the city. The two, however,
strongly disagreed, so the Soviets built a huge wall dividing Berlin. In 1962 the
Cold War heated up - an American spy plane found out that the Soviets were
building nuclear missile launchers in Cuba. Fidel Castro supported the Soviets
of course. J.F.K. did not know what to do. So he placed a naval blockade - a
ring of ships around Cuba to prevent the Soviets from bringing in more military
supplies. Several days later Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles - in
exchange the United States promised not to invade Cuba. They also installed a
"Hot Line" between the White House and the Kremlin to prevent a war from
beginning by mistake. Later they also signed a treaty that outlawed nuclear
bomb tests, which were pretty harmful for environment.
There were,
however, also serious problems in the U.S. In most southern states many public
places were racially segregated. State and local laws also prevented black
Americans from voting. In May 1961, a group of white and black people ignored
segregation laws and travelled together by bus through the south. Crowds of
angry white people beat and burned their buses. So J.F.K had to send marshals
to protect them. In 1962 the nation had to face violence against black people
once again. An African American, James Meridith, was admitted to the University
of Mississippi. J.F.K. wanted to convince governor Ross Barnett to allow
Meridith to attend classes, but he had to order the National Guard and federal
marshals to enforce the Constitution. After two people had died segregation
ended at the University of Mississippi and Meridith registered for classes. After
there was the same problem in Alabama, J.F.K. decided to talk to the nation on
television about civil rights.
On November
22, 1963, Kennedy's car drove slowly past cheering crowds in Dallas, when shots
rang out. He was seriously wounded and died a short time later. Lee Harvey
Oswald was arrested afterwards, but before his trial he was probably shot by
Jack Ruby. Some still believe that these two were part of a conspiracy. His
death, however, caused enormous sadness among all Americans and people all over
the world. Hundreds of Thousands gathered in Washington to join his funeral.
